


reunion

by PhoenixAccio



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alaska, Autistic Character, Gen, Guilt, Pre-Relationship, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond, Reunions, Sensory Overload, Stimming, Telepathy, airports are sensory hell even when you can't also hear everyones thoughts, autistic mantis, in the autism way not the horny way, pre-MGS1, selectively mute mantis, vague mentions of torture but nothing actually happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27664102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixAccio/pseuds/PhoenixAccio
Summary: Mantis's latest job is further north than they usually go, but the pay is worth it. A few unexpected factors threaten to throw a wrench in things.
Relationships: Liquid Snake & Psycho Mantis
Kudos: 14





	reunion

Mantis wasn't expecting much. 

They'd mostly been wandering at this point, looking for work and crashing at motels in between. It wasn't like they didn't have money, they had plenty, but a fixed address wasn't worth it when you had to move constantly. The motels were shit, of course, but Mantis had a migrane regardless of the thread-count of their sheets, so they really couldn't bring themself to care. 

They were moving again anyways, packing their clothing and sparse toiletries and their few personal effects into a small duffel bag they slung over one shoulder. They turned, giving the room a once-over to confirm they had everything, then shut the door behind them. Mantis dropped the key to their room on the reception desk without looking and stepped outside. 

As expected, the car was waiting for them. It was black and nondescript, and looked freshly cleaned. Mantis swung their gangly body into the backseat and dumped the duffel bag beside them. The driver seemed vaguely uncomfortable with their presence, which Mantis liked. Judging by the man's thoughts, he'd at least been somewhat briefed on Mantis's abilities. There wasn't anything too disgusting under the fear, however, so Mantis leaned against the car door, feeling its vibrations as the engine started, and attempted to sleep. 

When Mantis emerged from a dream of burning with heart pounding rabbit-quick against their ribcage and clothes sticking unpleasantly to sweat-damp skin, the car was pulling into the airport parking lot. Sighing, Mantis pulled their bag to them in preparation for their departure. 

The driver pulled up by the airport entrance and handed Mantis their boarding pass and the tag for their luggage. Mantis took them with a terse nod of acknowlegement, and braced themself for the inevitable shock of pain from the multitudinous minds waiting inside. 

As Mantis predicted, the crushing pressure was instantaneous. It was like being dunked in a freezing cold lake, Mantis thought. The line between the normal pain of life somewhere populated and this kind of shocking intensity never had a build-up. The line was sharp and hard, and it had taken Mantis years to supress the stumble upon entering a crowded building, their mind struggling to adjust, to process the sudden onslaught of information. 

Gritting their teeth, Mantis fiddled with the sticky side of their baggage tag, focusing on binding it to the strap in an attempt to distract themself from the relentless assault on their senses. 

The tag was fastened too quickly despite Mantis's clumsy, trembling hands, leaving them again without a distraction from the hundreds of minds around them. Clutching white-knuckled at the strap of their bag, Mantis sped up, just trying to get this over with, get on the plane as soon as possible and away from this writhing mass of thought to a slightly more manageable one. 

Mantis realized this strategy had been seriously flawed when they found themselves being slowly shunted towards the front of a line to be patted down and scanned and thoroughly searched. Right. Airports had been bad enough already, there was a reason they hadn't taken a plane that wasn't private in the last five years. The promise of some stranger with their hands all over Mantis, repulsive thoughts amplified even with the mask, made Mantis feel ill. 

Eventually Mantis reached the front of the queue and reluctantly removed their shoes and harness at the instruction of the agent behind the counter, dropping them by their bag in a plastic bin to be scanned. 

"The mask needs to come off too, sir," the agent said as Mantis placed the bin with their belongings onto the conveyor belt. Freezing, Mantis shook their head. Mask stays on. 

"We can't scan you properly with it, you can put it back after," the agent insisted. "Is this going to be an issue?" 

A threat, not an offer for accommodation, Mantis knew, of being detained for even longer as security went over all Mantis's papers. They really did not want to spend any more time than necessary in this place. The agent eyed Mantis as they weighed their options. After a moment, Mantis undid the straps of their mask, bracing themself as they pulled it away and dropped it into the bin. 

The pain, already intense, immediately approched the point of being unbearable. Mantis clenched their jaw harder, tapping anxiously at their leg to give themself something to focus on. The migrane was tunneling their vision down, now, but Mantis ignored it and focused on keeping themself upright. The moment they were through the metal detector Mantis grabbed their mask from the bin, pressing it to their face and tightening the straps. Mantis had tried not to look frantic while doing it, but they suspected that that had failed. The agent was speaking to Mantis. They tried to focus. 

"-'re all clear, sir, you can go ahead." The agent pointed in the direction of the gates, and Mantis took their things from the bin and hurried off, barely stopping to put their shoes back on. 

Mantis collapsed onto the first bench they saw. They were painfully aware of how visible they were right now, but none of the people passing by were paying attention, too concerned with catching their flights. Hunching over to curl into themself protectively, Mantis strapped their harness back on. It was hard to get a grip on the leather straps, clumsy hands fumbling at the buckles. Mantis relaxed slightly at the return of that safe, familiar squeeze, eyes closed. There was a high keening sound. Mantis realized absently that it was them. They gripped their own arms tightly, rocking back and forth in a tense arc. It was too _loud_ in here. Mantis couldn't make out individual thoughts, didn't have to hear every disgusting thing crossing the minds of the people around them, but only because they were all layered over each other in a dull roar, an endless ocean of noise Mantis could never ever block out. Taking their mask off _here_ had only made everything worse. The customs agent had defintely seen their face. Mantis was almost grateful they'd been too distracted by pain to hear the reactions. They felt sick. Their head hurt. They could not wait to be finished with this _ridiculous_ trip. 

Eventually, Mantis forced themself to stand. Missing their flight just meant they would be here longer. Mantis made it to their gate just in time to board and narrowly avoiding a second meltdown and somehow still had enough energy left to feel embarassingly childish for pulling the cheap airplane blanket over their head to block out the sound of the other passengers a tiny bit more. 

The plane hadn't been as bad as the airport at least. There were fewer people by far within range of Mantis's abilities, and many were asleep or distracted. Hardly anyone thought about Mantis tucked away in the corner and those who did did so only in passing. It was a relief, and Mantis nearly even managed a nap. When the plane landed six hours later, Mantis almost didn't want to get off. They did, though, they had places to be. 

Mantis was expecting to walk right back into the same crushing weight of minds they'd left six hours ago, but when they stepped off the plane with their bag, they were pleasantly surprised to find that this airport was much smaller than the last. The terminal they entered was nearly empty aside from the others getting off the plane. It wasn't good but it was tolerable, which Mantis considered improvement enough. 

Customs was not as bad this time. Mantis still had to remove their mask and shoes, but was allowed to keep their harness on. They went through the metal detector with their hands covering their face until they could get their mask back on, and it was bad but it was not as bad as it had been before. When Mantis finally caught sight of the man waiting with a sign bearing their current alias, they just about sighed in relief and tried not to walk so quickly as to make their eagerness to leave too obvious. 

"Follow me," the man said, and strode off in the direction of the car. As they reached it, he added, "you don't have a coat? You're gonna be pretty cold out here dressed like that." 

The man, who was clearly dressed for the Alaskan winter, nodded at Mantis. Mantis looked down at their outfit. They held a hand up coolly, and produced a ball of flickering orange flame, letting it hover for a moment before snuffing it out with a closing of their hand. They would be fine. 

The driver, who looked alarmed but not as much as Mantis was used to, shrugged and got into the car. Mantis followed. 

The driver only took them so far. Eventually, the car pulled to a stop near a large platform. 

"This is as far as I go," the driver explained. "You can wait in the car until the helicopter gets here." 

Helicopter? 

Mantis didn't ask, but the driver continued anyways. 

"You're headed to an island off the coast. Can't get to it any way but by air." 

Shrugging in confirmation, Mantis crossed their arms and looked out the window. 

It wasn't long before the helecopter arrived. The wait was made more tolerable by the fact that Mantis's driver had occupied himself with a book procured from the car's glove compartment, permitting Mantis the quietest half-hour they'd had in possibly years. Mantis had closed their eyes to the rhythmic pace of muted reading in their head. It was quiet enough for Mantis to sense the helecopter from a significant distance. They pulled their bag onto their lap just as it came into sight, and watched it touch down neatly on the helepad to wait. The driver waved as Mantis stepped out, and was gone before Mantis had made it to the pad. 

The helecopter was tolerable. The pilot was focused on flying, and dismissed Mantis's appearance without much thought, as if used to strange-looking people of all sorts. Mantis wondered what they were getting themself into--they were beginning to suspect this was not going to resemble their typical government jobs. 

It was more waiting, and waiting was the same. Mantis fiddled with their gloves absently and tried to lose themself in the drone of the helecopter's engine. They'd very nearly managed it when the hum changed pitch and they felt the tight swoop of the helecopter descending. Below them, when Mantis looked, the great grey sprawl of the facility where Mantis would be working came into view. They were grateful that the constant switching of vehicles would be ending soon, even as they felt the pulsing mass of thoughts below grow closer. 

After the brief respite, the sheer quantity of minds below was somewhat overwhelming. The population was nothing compared to what Mantis heard all the time living in the city, but their tolerance had been lowered by the taste of near-silence. Mantis reached under their mask to rub at an eye as they adjusted to the familiar spark of pain there. As the helecopter neared the landing pad, Mantis felt a faint tug of familiarity through the noise. They looked up, curious, reaching out towards the interesting mind where it stood out against the nameless mass of other people. 

Mantis narrowed their eyes, pulling carefully at the bright thread of thoughts. The helecopter touched down as Mantis followed the thread as its owner approached. It was so familiar, but Mantis couldn't tell who it _was,_ they couldn't _remember,_ they- 

They were right there, staring at Mantis from across the rooftop. Mantis was grateful the mask concealed their face as their mouth fell open in dull shock. There was no _way_ that was who Mantis thought it was. 

But no, they knew that too-long blond hair, the face, even the scars were the same, if somewhat more numerous now. Mantis knew exactly who this was. Unbelieving, they reached out all the way, dipping into that bright, familiar mind. 

_Eli?_ they asked, little more than breath in his mind, and suddenly they were flooded with foreign emotion as that old psychic link opened up in full force. Eli's hands went over his mouth where he stood across the rooftop, and it was too much space, far too much space, and it had been _years,_ and in a puff off black smoke Mantis was in front of him, bag abandoned on the ground to pull Eli into a desperate, starving hug. 

Eli reciprocated stoically, but Mantis could feel the gasping hum of _Tretij Tretij Tretij_ in his head. Eli had known, of course he had, but there'd still been that prodding doubt in his mind until now that he'd somehow be wrong. 

_Eli,_ Mantis repeated. They could feel their own and Eli's emotions compounding on each other, positive feedback loop breaking Mantis's composure entirely. Despite their attempts to block it, Mantis's memories from the time they'd been apart flooded through the bond. 

Suddenly, Mantis was convinced that Eli was going to hate them. They were different, now, they weren't the same person as they'd been when Eli had seen them last. They'd done things Eli had never stooped to, they'd _tortured_ people, they'd _enjoyed_ it. 

When Eli let go, Mantis searched his face for any sign of disgust, anger, _anything,_ but Eli's expression was carefully blank. 

"Follow me," Eli said tersely, and Mantis nodded and picked up their bag. 

Mantis almost wished Eli had told them right away to get out, because the wait to hear what Eli thought of them now was almost worse. They walked (floated, in Mantis's case,) through the twisting grey hallways in physical and mental silence, Mantis having blocked the link themself for fear of what they would overhear. They passed the odd employee as they went, but none spoke. They seemed nervous, as if Mantis (or Eli?) scared them. _Good,_ Mantis thought bitterly. They were used to strangers being afraid. 

Eventually, Eli came to a stop in front of a sliding metal door. 

"This is your room," Eli said, gesturing. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a key card, door opening automatically as he did. Stepping through the doorway, Eli handed it to Mantis. 

"I had it specially built, to be... quiet, for you. Reinforced walls and whatnot. Hopefully it works?" 

Surprised, Mantis pocketed the card as they stepped through the door behind Eli. It _was_ quiet, actually. They felt it as soon as they stepped inside, murmur of foreign thoughts suddenly mute, as if Mantis were back on that helecopter from before, flying over the empty tundra. 

Mantis nodded, stunned. Was Eli... letting them _stay?_

"I don't care, you know," Eli said suddenly, and Mantis neurotically checked their block on the link to make sure Eli really couldn't hear them. It was still up, and Mantis almost sighed. He really could just read them that well, then, even after being apart for so long. 

"I've hurt loads of people," Eli continued, "you know that. If I stopped speaking to people over a little torture I _definitely_ wouldn't be working for _Ocelot."_

Hesitantly, Mantis lowered the block. Eli was being sincere. Somehow, despite everything, he really didn't mind. 

"Спасибо, Эли," Mantis said softly, out loud for the first time in... days, really. In Russian, yes, but Eli understood. He deserved Mantis's voice, even if they couldn't manage English just then. 

"It's fine, Tretij, don't worry," Eli replied. Then, "I missed you." 

_I missed you too,_ Mantis replied. 

"You can rest for now, I'll see you later. Your schedule is on your desk." 

Mantis looked, and the schedule was there. They nodded back at Eli. 

"Welcome to Shadow Moses, Mantis," Eli grinned after a moment, businesslike and faux-serious. "We're glad to have you." 

Despite themself, Mantis smiled under their mask. Eli wouldn't see it, but Mantis knew he could feel it. 

"Glad to be working here, Boss."


End file.
